The Best World Series of Poker Main Event Moments (part 3)

It seems almost surreal that the WSOP has been the headlining poker event for 40 years now: So in honor of the World Series of Poker here is part 3 of my list of WSOP Main Event moments throughout the years:

1990: After Phil Hellmuth’s win in 1989, the WSOP saw a series of unknown Poker Pros capture the title, starting with Mansour Matloubi in 1990. Matloubi was also the first foreigner to capture the title.

1991: Brad Daugherty’s win in 91 was the first time the WSOP Main Event champion received $1 million in prize money, a figure that did quite a bit to promote the event over the next few years: In fact the WSOP title was worth $1,000,000 until 2000, despite the field almost doubling!

1992: Hamid Dastmalachi continued the Iranian invasion at the WSOP. Dastmalachi joined fellow countryman Mansour Matloubi as the only foreign born players to win the event, and remarkably they were both from Iran!

1993: Jim Bechtel, another semi-pro player, captured the title in 1993. Bechtel has gone on to win over $2.5 million on the tournament circuit, despite being relatively unknown in today’s game.

1994: Poker pro Russ Hamilton won the WSOP championship on 1994. Hamilton would go on to become one of the most infamous names in Online Poker, when it came to light that he had used his position with Ultimate Bet poker to cheat players out of millions of dollars.

1995: When Dan Harrington won the Main Event in 1995 few people realized just what type of impact the soft spoken poker pro would have in the years to come: Harrington’s back-to-back final tables in the mid-2000’s led to him authoring the most comprehensive tournament poker books of all-time.

1996: Most people probably thought Huckleberry Seed was a nickname when he won the 1996 Main Event: But Seed would go on to be one of the most prolific tournament poker players ever, and a dominating presence in the Heads-Up Tournaments that are currently en vogue.

1997: Stu Ungar returned in 1997 to capture his third WSOP championship. Barely resembling the bright eyed twenty-something that captured back-to-back titles some 15 years previous, Ungar was able to change his nickname from “The Kid” to the “The Comeback Kid”.

1998: With one of the most infamous taunts in poker history, “You call, it’s gonna be all over baby!” Scotty Nguyen took the poker world by storm. Scotty would go on to have such a career that he will most likely end up in the Poker Hall of Fame.

1999: After a string of pro players capturing the title, the WSOP ended the 90’s with a recreational poker player from Ireland capturing the title: Noel Furlong. Furlong has had decent results in poker, but his $100 million a year carpet business keep him from devoting too much time to the felt.

The 90’s were truly the decade of the poker pro: Aside from Furlong who was a highly successful businessman, every WSOP champion made their living throughout their lives at the poker tables. Included in that bunch are current poker legends: Scotty Nguyen, Dan Harrington, Stu Ungar, and Huck Seed.